Tag Archives: Normandy

So, having met Sam & Martha for a meal last night, today we were off in the footsteps of Martha’s father – Major Raymond P Elledge Jr. In many ways, today was all about the whole point of this project: being able to give back to the family of one of the men that were […]

Operation BLUECOAT Battlefield tour and talk Today started wet & with a return to Hill 226 and a second meet-up with Stéphane Jacquet as he’d asked me to go through the talk that I do on the start of Operation BLUECOAT which focuses on 3rd Battalion Scots Guards (one of three constituent units of 6th […]

Preparations for the “Men in the Shed” talk So, the Big Day dawned… Today was the day chosen to celebrate the Liberation, 70 years ago, of St Vigor des Mezerets (the actual day was 14th August 1944) by 43rd Wessex Infantry Division (the same one that Albert Figg fought with). As part of the celebrations, […]

Disaster! We’ve had some interesting escapades on these trips with late arrivals at hotels, having to wait at the Chunnel for a delayed train, etc, but this one was spectacular! We’d had a look around the village of Cricklade and had set off for the Chunnel as my phone rang… it was Elaine, my wife, […]

Return to Normandy So, back off to Normandy for a third time in a single year – one of the benefits of an “Anniversary Year”… and my wife, Elaine, wasn’t complaining, either, as it meant that she got the benefit of another chunk of snore-free night’s sleep! As it was a special year & visit […]

At La Fiere A reasonably early start saw us arriving at the Sullivan family accommodation at La Fiere which is on the banks of the river Merderet which is a key battle in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division Elizabeth, Bill’s wife had found some old wartime photos of Bill that she brought out […]

Presentations and P47s in Normandy With Peter Findlay So, as is usual on these trips, we got up in the morning & immediately amended the plans that we had for the day! The reason for this was that Peter Findlay, one of our hosts, was being honoured with the presentation of a medal from the […]

Operation BLUECOAT, Sainte-Mère-Église and UTAH Beach Following Operation BLUECOAT In the past, whenever we’ve visited Normandy and followed the tour of Opertion BLUECOAT laid out in the back of Ian Daglish’s book on the subject, we’ve always started at Caumont & made it as far as Le Beny Bocage, or perhaps th e cemetery at […]

Heading South And they’re off! Normandy 2013 here we come… Up bright and early (well, one of us was!) and load up the car… Yes, there are only two of us going! Then on to the Motorway & heading south, with music from our past sounding clear over the CD player. A stop for lunch […]

Normandy… And so it came to pass, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen, that our heroes did decide that the time had come to once again embark on their quest to quaff ales and wines from far and near, to eat food that they were not sure of and to boldly go […]